Learning to play chord ‘great place to start’ on road to recovery
I love guitar. It is important as a creative outlet for me.
I was a scout leader and we used to play guitar songs around the campfire, and that is when I got the first desire to learn how to play. While I was learning, my son used to fall asleep to my music.
My ability to play guitar left me at the scene of the accident. I had to completely relearn how to play.
You always wake up with great intentions for the day, but when you have a brain injury there is a mental wall that stops you from moving forward.
Having the support from the other people in the group allowed me to get over that mental wall because they held me accountable for my goal to relearn how to play.
With a brain injury, you always feel like you are a little bit tired, regardless of the amount of sleep you’ve had. With this program, I learned to pace myself, instead of going full steam ahead.
I also learned to not fight when your body tells you to take a nap. When you look at the big picture of a goal, sometimes you can get overwhelmed. You have to pick a point and just start.
You may not be able to play the G chord, but if you discover that you can play a chord, then that is a great place to start.
“This program gives you a sense of accomplishment and has made me not as scared to start other projects.”
So the program teaches you to be pliable instead of being stuck in your ways. Instead of being overwhelmed, I learned that I could adjust my goals.
This program gives you a sense of accomplishment and has made me not as scared to start other projects.
Now, I know how to play three songs that I learned throughout the course of the six-week goals program. It all started for me with Dennis Radman, the facilitator of the first goals group. When I felt like there were things that I could no longer do, he told me to, “just relearn them.”
This is something that has always stuck with me.